


Odd Couple

by yorkisms



Series: Horizon: Red vs Blue [3]
Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Alternate Universe - Horizon: Zero Dawn Fusion, Friendship, Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-11
Updated: 2018-09-11
Packaged: 2019-07-11 04:42:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15964937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yorkisms/pseuds/yorkisms
Summary: Since he's got a few spare hours away from the others, Grif meets up with Locus and they both think about the past, the present, and the future. Grif knows he wants to run away with him- but, y'know, as bros?





	Odd Couple

**Author's Note:**

> Grif/Simmons/Locus is endgame in this, because I'm powerful and I said so.
> 
> Nothing says "I love you, bro" like "I wanna run away with you."

The first thing the Carja traveler would tell the Nora Grif about his life was that some Carja lived rich lives, with all the silk and meat and maize they could ask for. 

That was not his life. 

Locus was born in a settlement in the wilds of the Carja Sundom, the biggest land in the area. Bigger than the claim, the sacred lands, and Ban-Ur, possibly bigger than all of them combined. It took days to travel anywhere across the unforgiving desert and through the rock spires and mesas. Not only that, but the Sundom laid claim to some of the most dangerous of the machines. 

Locus characterizes his early life, then, as marked by that kind of survival. Then again, that’s nothing compared to pulling a rather stupid Nora out of trouble just to have to drag him back to beg someone to take him off his hands. 

“What are you doing here if you’re from the Sundom? The matriarchs never let Carja through the borders. Are you a trader? Wait, you’re a hunter! So you can’t be a trader. Are you-” 

Locus cuts the man next to him off with a glare. 

“I do my own work. I am here on other business, speaking for a trader in the Sundom. And I am taking you back to your people.”

“I mean, you can try. My sister and I- did I tell you about my sister? Man, she’s the best. Great hunter! Just-- really great!” 

“You were wandering somewhere dangerous, you know.” 

“Psssh. Locus, I’m not stupid! I needed resources off that snapmaw!” 

“As the name implies, if you are not careful, its  _ maw _ will  _ snap _ you in half,” Locus growls. “Leave the hunting to your sister and strip the parts yourself.” 

“Aw, c’mon, I can do my own work!” 

“Start. Smaller.” 

“What about a strider?” 

“Slightly better. Can you shoot?”

“Naw, I usually use traps to do my work.” 

“I  _ suppose _ that’s an improvement.”

Locus drags Grif into the nearest village, and everyone stares at him like he’s crazy. As much as you can stare at a six-foot-two Carja, muscular even for a hunter, with scars across all of his skin like he’s crazy. 

“Go.” 

“Go  _ where? _ ” Grif squeaks. “I don’t even live here!” 

“Find someone who will take you where you do live.” 

“That’s no one here!” 

“No one here will help you,” Locus says dryly. Even though he knows not to trust people, he just wants to get back to his job. 

“No!” 

“Outcast,” a woman passing spits at Grif, “You. Carja. Get him out of our sight already.” 

Locus tightens his grip on Grif’s arm for a moment, though it’s not aimed at Grif. “Sorry?” 

“He’s one of the motherless ones. He lives out there, not here.” she makes a shooing motion towards the gate. 

Even though he’s only traveled with Grif for a day (it feels like more, with all the questions he asks) Locus feels his mouth curl into a wordless snarl. In Meridian, city of the sun, they always said the easterners were savage, but this is a cruelty Locus can’t even begin to process. He’s about to say as such, then it reaches his mind that he’s on a job. He cannot ruin his employer’s chances at trade. The sacred lands are one of the best sources of blaze- a useful component for many types of weapons that use fire to bring down machines and animals. 

Locus tugs Grif out of there, fuming. 

“You were mad!” Grif exclaims with a happy grin. “You were going to stand up for me! Why’d you stop? Does this mean we’re friends now? How are we gonna communicate in secret when you have to go back to Meridian? I’m gonna write a code, not like glyphs cause anyone can read glyphs, just, okay, how do you feel about machine parts-” 

“No code,” Locus growls. “I was angry because your people’s savagery had not been related to me in such a way before.” 

“You’re telling me. But you were totally also mad because you like me.” 

“Grif,” Locus replies with a tired sigh. “Your people exile criminals. In the sundom, we bury them up to their neck in the dust and let the sun judge them. The difference is, we condemn people for crimes that are not being abandoned as a child.” 

“Wow, you do that? At least we give them a chance to survive.” 

“At what cost? You clearly went insane.” 

“Hey! I’m fine! I’m sane as a glinthawk!” 

“That makes no sense. Glinthawks are- they simply scavenge the bodies of other machines, they have nothing to do with sanity. Come on. Where does your sister live.” 

“Oh, oh, okay, so she lives near Mother’s Rise- no no, near the river? She likes to fish, definitely, she uses my nets…”

Locus quietly vows to himself that he is  _ never _ coming back to the savage east.

\--

“It’s good to see you again,” Grif says with a soft chuckle. “Listen. I’m gonna need a favor from you. I’ve got some friends, Banuk, they made a deal with the matriarchs to transport some important relics out of here and up to somewhere in Ban-Ur. They’re gonna need a bodyguard detail. I’d say they’re good, but their Oseram outlander consults are as stupid as the next guy. Not gonna work.” 

“So how does this benefit you?” 

“I’m going to ask Kai if she’s okay with me going with them,” Grif says quietly. “She wants to run in the proving in a few months anyway, when she finishes, bam, no more outcast. I’m a little old for that, so, why not. Figured I’d ask my best friend to get me across the border.” 

Locus pauses, then nods. “Do you want the guards at Daytower to know who you are?” 

“...nah. Don’t think so.” 

“You will need Carja armor. Carja weapons. Shards.” 

“That’s your favor to me. Get me across the border. I’ll go anywhere afterward, it doesn’t-” 

“Absolutely not,” Locus says forcefully. “You are staying with me.” 

Grif pauses, then grins crookedly. “I thought you didn’t really like me, you were just surprised by how savage the Nora are.” 

Locus rolls his eyes. “That again. It has been two years. I...changed my mind. The ones in their villages are savage. They have to be, to ignore you.”

Grif ducks his head a little, grin growing. “If you say so, buddy.”

\--

They catch up for a few hours in the tall grass. Locus takes down a grazer and drags it by the antlers into the grass to strip it for parts. 

“Can I have some?” 

“No. You just watched. Why would I give you a share of the shards?” 

“Because you love me?” 

Locus responds with flustered silence, prying a canister of blaze off the back of the machine. He always thought they looked a bit like birds with four legs, though he has no idea why a bird would have antlers. 

“Aw, come on. A few shards?” 

“Shards only,” Locus mutters, examining the canister. It looks a little over half full. It’ll do. 

“Man, you’re good with a bow.” 

“It is not difficult to sneak up on a grazer, Grif. They spend most of their time with their antlers buried in the ground, doing...whatever it is machines do. They are distracted.” Locus begins removing wires. “They say the Carja hunter’s lodge in Meridian eats them for breakfast.” 

“And you’re not part of the hunter’s lodge?” 

“They would never have me,” Locus murmurs, before tossing Grif scraps of metal. “They do not look kindly on mercenaries. Former or present.” 

“Then they’re wrong. You’re a good hunter.”

“Hardly.” 

“Didn’t you take down a rockbreaker?” 

“Over five days and nights.” 

“Still, those are big! And they go underground and you can’t track them, right? I’ve never seen one before.”

“It certainly makes it difficult. And yes, they are only really in the Sundom. But the claws they use to dig are exposed and easily removed from a distance with enough tenacity.” 

“And you did it!” 

“I needed its heart to trade.” 

“Motivation doesn’t  _ matter _ . You’re a good hunter. That’s all I need to know.”

“Do your friends know you are asking me for help?” 

“No. Not yet.” 

“Then perhaps you should tell them. I would not blame them for being startled if they were observant enough to know they were being followed.” 

“They won’t notice.” 

Locus stares at him flatly. “The Oseram negotiator and sparkworker, Wash? Will he not notice? The Nora brave and Seeker, Carolina? She will not notice?” 

“...okay. Fair point. I’ll talk to them, alright?” 

“Guide them towards Daytower,” Locus says calmly, standing up. “I will be following. Even if you do not see me.” 

“I know you will.” 

“I have to go.”

“Hey, what about the rest of the grazer?” 

“Yours.” 

Grif grins, and as Locus paces off, he digs into the remaining wires and shards of metal.

**Author's Note:**

> H:RVB is going to be updating every three days or so. Now that all the setup stuff is posted, I can start to settle this into a rhythm. 
> 
> I love feedback! 
> 
> tumblr: maggie-wittington (writing: writing-partners)
> 
> twitter: extraplutonium


End file.
